PGI to conduct online entrance for MD/DM

10/30/2015

CHANDIGARH: If things go as planned, PGI will be the second research and medical institute in the country to start online entrance for MD/DM course after Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Puducherry, from the 2017 session. For the 2016 session, the forthcoming exam on December 20 will be the last paper-based entrance examination. Twice a year, around 7,000 candidates appear for the entrance.

The decision is fallout of the MD/DM entrance exam cheating racket exposed by the CBI in 2012. The PGI administration had then decided to forgo the paper examination to ensure transparency. But the process took a few years before the administration finalised it. "The same pattern as JIPMER can be followed here," said a senior official. The online test evaluation will be similar to the GRE entrance, which will get locked soon after the time is over. The PGI has already started accepting online form application and payment for the test.

After 2012, the institute introduced strict measures, including frisking, installing jammers and not allowing even personal pens for the examination. "Though not a single complaint of copying has been reported since, online examination will ensure greater transparency. It will also allow candidates to take exam from anywhere and not face the inconvenience of travelling to the city," said the official.

In 2012, there was mass copying using hi-tech gadgets, and the CBI had recovered laptops, micro-earphones, sophisticated handsets, bluetooth devices, button-hole cameras, tablet computers and wireless earplugs from the members of a gang involved in the scam. The examinees used bluetooth earphones to get answers from hotels stationed a few kilometres away from the examination centre.